epsucob@NEWS December 2004

We are continuing to collect information on pay and conditions in the public services across Europe. There has been a delay in making this information available to affiliates via the EPSU website but we are hoping that the technical problems that have arisen will be resolved soon. We have had over 50 responses to the questionnaires sent out during the year but are still missing information from a number of major countries. A revised questionnaire has now been translated in to French, German, Spanish and Swedish and will be distributed shortly.

A new 2½-year national wage policy was agreed by employers and unions at the end of November. Negotiations were initially delayed when employers said they wanted to move to a more decentralised bargaining system. However, the central agreements has now been signed and the next stage involves private and public sector unions negotiating how the agreement will be applied in their sectors.

The deal allows for a 2.5% increase in payroll costs from 1.3.05 and 2.1% from 1.6.06. The agreement runs from 16.2.05 to 30.9.07.

There will be higher increases for the lower paid and a gender equality allowance in the second year. The agreement also improves employee redundancy rights in firms facing restructuring. Shop stewards will get new rights to information and training.

From 1 January 2005 the 25,000 workers at EON Energie in Germany will get a 2.2% increase in pay and a lump-sum payment of 240 euros. The new agreement runs for 14 months and also includes provision for the number of trainees in 2006 to be kept at the same level as 2005 while there is a commitment to take on more trainees in permanent jobs, up from 80 to 120.

On 17 November ver.di organised a nationwide series of strikes and other actions in protest against Germany regional government employers in the west of the country who are unilaterally imposing longer working hours. They have also said they will cut Christmas and holiday pay in both east and west.

After lengthy negotiations unions in the Austrian public sector agreed a 2.3% increase for employees. The new agreement takes effect from 1 January and as usual will run for 12 months.

The three main Italian union federations all supported the general strike on 30 November in protest at the Berlusconi’s government’s planned cutbacks in public spending. Thousands joined demonstrations around the country despite the pouring rain.

Unions organizing workers in the non-profit sector, covering health and social care, are continuing to press their demands and with another demonstration in Brussels in early December. Along with improvements in pay unions are looking for an increase in employment in the sector and a cut in working time. This was the fourth demonstration this year.

Negotiations over the national pay framework agreement for 2005-06 are proving difficult as Belgian employers claim they have very little scope for pay increases. The FEB/VBO employers’ organization has argued for a pay freeze but that employees will still see an increase in net pay as a result of tax cuts. Unions counter that an improving economic outlook means that employers can afford a reasonable rise. Unions are also resisting employer attempts to cut back early retirement pensions.

After five years of talks the main health service unions have voted to back the introduction of the “Agenda for Change” pay and conditions agreement. The new deal will mean a minimum hourly wage in the health service of 8.24 euros (5.69 GBP). The new system will also introduce important changes to working time and training that should benefit workers with family commitments and enable many more employees to progress to better jobs.

The 200,000 local government workers in Scotland are covered by separate collective bargaining arrangements from the 1.5m employees in England and Wales. Unions have agreed a two-year pay deal for 2004 and 2005 with the first increase backdated to 1 April 2004. The 2.95% increases for each year compare to the three-year deal for England and Wales where the increases are 2.75% for 2004, 2.95% for 2005 and 2.95% or inflation for 2006.

French public service unions reacted with anger and disappointment to the proposals from public service minister Renaud Dutreil at the meeting to discuss public sector pay on 8 December. For 2005 Dutreil has offered a general pay increase of 0.5% (the same as 2004) plus some additional increases for the lowest paid and for those civil servants who have reached the top of their pay scale. The minister will provide exact details of the increases at the next meeting on pay on 21 December.

Before the meeting the unions attacked Dutreil for what they see as misleading statements over salary increases over the last five years. The unions estimate that by the end of this year civil servants will have seen their purchasing power fall by 5%, effectively the loss on average of a month and a half’s pay over the five-year period. In contrast, by taking account of salary increases like to promotion, age and competence, Dutreil maintains that on average civil servants’ salaries have increased in real terms.

The unions also point out that the salary bill for civil servants has fallen from 4.38% of GDP in 1999 to 4.25% in 2003.

Civil servants in the Czech Republic will get a 14th month salary payment before Christmas worth 25% of their monthly pay. Although this is less than the 40% they were entitled to last year, it is an improvement on the reduction to 10% that the government pushed for earlier this year.

Pressure on the government to increase public sector pay may follow implementation of draft legislation on police pay which could see police officers getting pay rises of around 33%. According to the EIRO industrial relations observatory teachers and doctors are also set to receive big increases.

Health workers in public service union IMPACT have voted overwhelmingly for strike action over reform and reorganization of the health service due to take effect from 1 January 2005. The union is protesting that its members have received no real assurances over work locations, job security and working conditions.

The series of strikes and demonstrations organized by private and public sector unions in the Netherlands has produced a number of concessions from the government in its plans to reform the pensions and welfare system. Although a number of changes will still be implemented, cuts in disability and unemployment benefits and early retirement pensions will not be so deep and the government has stepped back from statutory measures to impose wage restraint.

The EIRO industrial relations observatory reports that medical staff in Latvia are unilaterally reducing their working hours in protest at low pay and excessive working time.

There are over 200 separate bargaining units covering what used to a centralized civil service in the UK. Both the main civil service union, PCS, and the specialists’ union Prospect are attempting to reinstate some kind of national co-ordination in their bargaining. In the latest issue of its magazine Prospect reports on how decentralized bargaining has led to wide discrepancies in pay for people doing similar jobs in different departments. The union has also drawn up a 10-point pay claim for 2005 which its local negotiators can adapt to their particular circumstances. The claims covers:

• A cost-of-living increase for all staff;
• The opportunity for pay progression for all staff;
• Increase pay levels for specific jobs to at least average in civil service or appropriate external benchmark ;
• Minimum pay level for specialists of 23,125 euros (16,000 GBP pa);
• Performance related pay only in addition to overall pay rises;
• Annual leave increased to civil service median (30 days) plus best practice for maternity (26 weeks paid leave) and paternity (15 days paid leave);
• All pay systems to be equality audited;
• All allowances increased in line with inflation;
• Recruitment and retention allowances increased in line with annual pay increase; and
• Continued opposition to local pay.

The European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions summarises the findings of a report indicating that women in Estonia earn only 72% of men. The survey found a very slight difference between the public (72.3%) and private sectors (72%).

The 2004 ETUC report on collective bargaining provides information on developments in 21 countries looking at inflation, increases in collectively agreed wages and how they compare with the ETUC’s inflation plus productivity guideline.

The report also includes a four-year comparison of pay increases in the public and private sectors. The figures (for 18 countries) indicate that on average the public sector outperformed the private sector in 10 countries and underperformed in five.

The report covers changes to minimum wage rates and assesses prospects for 2005 in terms of pay and other key conditions such as working time.

The report concludes with an emphasis on the need to improve the exchange of information as the basis for co-ordination of collective bargaining in order to better meet the challenges posed by employers: “Collective bargaining in the individual countries is increasingly linked to developments in the rest of Europe and unions in the various countries are often confronted by the employer side with the same kind of demands which emphasise the need for wage moderation, cost-cutting, decentralization of collective bargaining and further flexibilisation, all for the sake of increased competitiveness.”

In its detailed annual review of collective bargaining, the ETUI argues that: “employers in Western Europe are abusing the general atmosphere of job insecurity by increasing pressure on trade unions to engage in concessional bargaining. The employers’ strategy is clearly to try to hollow out sectoral agreements by “making exceptions the rule”.”

The full 360-page report costs 27 euros + charges. A 40-page summary is also available for 10 euros.

Public service unions in Spain are hoping that they will be able to negotiate an early retirement deal for firefighters. The Secretary of State for Social Security has contacted the National Institute of Health and Safety asking it to look into the question and investigate the law on early retirement for difficult and dangerous professions would apply in this case.

Public sector unions in the UK have lobbied Parliament as part of their campaign against government plans to increase the retirement age for public sector workers from 60 to 65 and to raise the age at which workers can take early retirement from 50 to 55. More recently civil service unions have been presented with similar proposals.

A Latvian building company is refusing to apply the relevant industry collective agreement to its workers employed on a building site in Stockholm. The company is not part of the employers’ federation in the sector and argues that the collective agreement signed in Latvia should continue to apply to the men even though they are working in Sweden. Swedish legislation allows unions to push for the implementation of collective agreements even by employers who are not part of the relevant employers’ organisation. The case looks set to go to the courts and is effectively a case study of what could happen if the Services Directive is implemented in its current form with the “country of origin” principle.